THE open
INSTITUTE
for social science

We are a research and teaching cooperative working globally from Nepal. We help people create knowledge that makes change.

Think (Social) Scientifically

Engage complexity to disrupt the status quo

Our co-creators and collaborators:

Amplify New Voices

Build skills and cultivate expertise

Full-time courses

1-year Higher Diploma (UK-accredited Level 5)

Writing and Research

This one-year Higher Diploma program is designed to empower you with the skills most important to the new knowledge economy: writing, research, and critical thinking. You'll be challenged to push yourself in a rigorous and supportive environment, and you'll leave with a new capacity to make change.

Liberal arts teaching philosophy
 
Discussion-based classes, tightly integrated with project-based exploration of practical skills.
World-class, student-focused learning
 
Internationally accomplished faculty committed to engaged mentorship and supervised independent projects.
Supportive infrastructure
 
Work and study spaces, direct supervision and feedback, and a community of engaged peers.
No barriers to talent
 
Need-based financial aid for qualified students.
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Short courses and workshops

Six-week workshop

Professional Op-Ed Writing

This hands-on workshop will help you transform your expertise into impact.

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Five-week course

Wonder & Write

This course will help you rediscover the joy of wondering.

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Six-week workshop

Research Project Design

Get your project started right in just 4 weeks.

Library Shelf
Six-week course

Data for Decision Making

This course focuses on the R statistical programming language to help you see new and important stories in your data.

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Tell New Stories

Learn to listen and encounter new worlds

Notes from the Field

A microjournal for short-form social science and creative non-fiction
Gender

Kiwi and Memories

As I stepped into Maili didi’s small kitchen, she immediately busied herself making a cup of coffee. She took out the shiniest cup from the shelf to pour the hot drink. And together, we sat next to each other sipping our coffee. It had been a year since I met Maili didi. She had a shawl wrapped around her, and her cap, which could also be used to cover her neck, towered above her head, but she didn’t mind. She just kept expressing the joy of seeing me. “You are finally in my house. I am just so happy to see you,” she said.

Srizu Bajracharya

Student Researcher

Family

Ride to the Emergency Room

Sita is saying something downstairs to Bir. She yells unusually loud and I get up from bed and run down. I ask, "What's going on?" Sita says, "Something has happened to bhai... we must get there right away." I assume it's bad, but I am scared to ask.

Ishika Thapa

Student Researcher

Education

First Day of School

Sabina washes her waist length hair and is letting it dry in the sun. She pops inside, vanishes for five minutes, comes back outside with her hair combed and clipped at the back. She has a tika between her eyebrows, and a thick red potey around her neck. She’s ready for her two-year old son Aakash’s first day at school. A new set of duties await her: get Aakash ready for school; take his lunch and feed him; then pick him up from school and help him with homework. “I’ve seen this happen to others, now it’s my turn,” she says in disbelief.

Sabhyata Timsina

Research Fellow

Build Community

Weave connections of care and kinship everywhere

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Make Change

Imagine better futures

Our Mission and Vision

Knowledge

The Open Institute for Social Science is a member-driven academic community. We believe that high-quality social research will be the substance of a more innovative, more compassionate, and more equitable world. To get there, we are searching for new and better ways to practice our craft.

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People

The Open Institute for Social Science is an academic cooperative. We own no property, we generate no profits, and we have no employees. Very little of our work is centrally planned. Instead, our projects are driven by the passions of our membership, who coordinate and lead their social scientific efforts on our common platform.

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Change

The Open Institute for Social Science is an independent center of academic excellence, committed without compromise to local and international best practices. Though we aspire to be a resource to the worlds of policy and development, we are financially autonomous and thus free to be a very different kind of voice.

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